On the ground in Gaza, it’s a war of munitions, blood and terror. But in Canada, there’s a different war being waged about the Middle East conflict – a public relations war.

Everyone is involved in the battle to shape Canadian public opinion. Israeli and Palestinian diplomats. Advocacy groups for each cause. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the NDP’s Tom Mulcair and the Liberals’ Justin Trudeau.

Among the competing storylines: The sight last week of Palestinian children dying from Israeli airstrikes on a Gaza beach, versus the disquieting discovery of 30 Hamas tunnels that were presumably built to launch terrorist attacks on Israeli communities.

“There’s a struggle to define the narrative that explains what is taking place between the Israelis and Palestinians over Gaza,” University of Ottawa associate professor Roland Paris said Thursday.

“Framing the events is important because it shapes the way that people respond to the events. And it will shape the politics of the international response.”

Paris, who is the university research chair in International Security and Governance, said that the public relations campaign is highly sophisticated, using both traditional media and social media.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) run a website and Twitter feed that regularly provide updates and views on the conflict, including video. The Twitter feed draws a significant following within Canadian political circles, such as: Jason MacDonald (Harper’s communications director); Rick Roth (Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s communications director); Industry Minister James Moore; Health Minister Rona Ambrose; Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland; Karl Belanger (senior aide to Mulcair); and Bruce Heyman, the American ambassador to Canada.

Soon after the Gaza crisis unfolded, Middle East diplomats in Ottawa made sure to tell their side of the story. Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Rafael Barak, provided an interview to the Citizen to argue his country had taken a “calibrated” military response to Hamas terrorism. The top Palestinian diplomat to Canada, Said Hamad, also provided an interview – making no defence for Hamas rockets but insisting the deep-rooted cause of the conflict is Israeli occupation of Palestine territory.

“Both sides are seeking the support of outside parties,” said Paris. “Neither side wants to be internationally isolated and condemned.”

The stakes are intensifying, particularly after a building housing a UN school in the Gaza Strip was reportedly hit Thursday by an Israeli tank shell, killing at least 15. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was giving no appearance of backing down, saying his country is imperilled by a large arsenal of Hamas rockets and a massive tunnel system that provides terrorists a chance to sneak into Israel.

“We started this operation to return peace and quiet to Israel,” he said Thursday, “and we shall return it.”

Here in Canada, the Conservative government has run its own PR campaign, reiterating its “steadfast support” of Israel. Harper has issued three statements, noting that he has had conversations with Netanyahu. Both Harper and Baird, who has held his own news conferences, have had one clear message: In their view, it is up to Hamas to end the crisis, not Israel.

After the Gaza conflict began, the Conservative party produced a web advertisement – entitled “Through Fire and Water” – that lauds how Harper has defended Israel.

It contains video clips of Harper’s address to the Israeli Knesset in January, as well as speeches by Baird elsewhere. Moreover, it includes examples of newspaper headlines this month about Harper’s “unwavering” support for Israel, and accusing Hamas of using “human shields.”

The clip was shared by the party on Twitter and Facebook. Baird tweeted a link to the ad last week, and Harper retweeted it. The ad also contains a link which redirects people to a page allowing them to donate funds to the Conservative Party of Canada.

The conflict, now in its third week, was sparked when Hamas, regarded internationally as a terrorist group, significantly increased the number of missiles it fired into Israel from Gaza. Israel responded with its own airstrikes in Gaza, and late last week, launched a ground offensive to destroy a labyrinth of Hamas tunnels.

As of Thursday afternoon, the conflict had killed 718 Palestinians, most of them non-combatant civilians, and 32 Israeli soldiers.

Critics such as Amnesty International Canada have raised concerns about the nature of those casualties and how Palestinian civilians are “overwhelmingly … suffering the consequences.”

Israelis say they have taken precautions to limit civilian deaths, but are hamstrung by how Hamas has placed its rockets near civilian populations, schools and hospitals. They also argue that their own casualty rate would be higher were it not for their “Iron Dome” anti-missile system that stops Hamas rockets.

In Ottawa, as in other Canadian cities, the high-stakes battle over who has the moral high ground has been playing out.

About 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at Harper’s office across from Parliament Hill this week – one of them carrying a Hamas flag – and decried how the Conservative government has steadfastly backed Israel.

Meanwhile, a senior Israeli defence official provided details to Ottawa reporters of a dangerous arsenal of rockets built by Hamas within Gaza, and a massive system of tunnels. No longer is Hamas just a terrorist group, he said, arguing the organization now has “state-like capabilities” that cannot be tolerated.

He said Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are believed to have 10,000 rockets, of which only 2,200 have been fired in the current conflict.

The more frightening concern was the discovery of 30 tunnels from Gaza into Israel. They are built with concrete walls, are 30 metres deep (making them difficult to detect) and some are three kilometres long, the official said.

Many of the exit shafts are just steps from Israeli communities. Israeli defence officials say they believe it was part of a plan to eventually stage a massive terrorist attack.

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